Curating Your Menu: Exploring Specialty’s Supporting Players (Tea, Chocolate, and CPG)
Workshop Description: While coffee will always be the centerpiece of your cafe menu, let's demystify the many options there are for those "supporting players" and celebrate all they have to offer when it comes to curating your menu!
Join us to learn about how to taste, evaluate, prepare, and promote offerings in the chocolate, tea, and CPG categories, with the same care and attention you give your coffee.
Ideal for the cafe owner or manager, lead barista, the curious coffee sensory enthusiast, this will be a sensory-focused class anchored in practical business application.
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Room Number: 360DEF
Category: Business
Booking: To book your place in this Workshop, head to the Specialty Coffee Expo Registration Portal and add a session to your order. Already registered? Simply enter your email address and badge code to access your booking and add other paid events to your badge.
Instructor
Julie Housh
Tarra Samuelson
How to Dial in Espresso
Workshop Description: Elevate your espresso skills in this comprehensive workshop designed for baristas seeking to deepen their knowledge of coffee extraction. Participants will explore the intricate processes that influence espresso quality, focusing on both the science and art of dialing in.
Course Highlights:
Understanding Extraction: Discover how various factors—such as dose, volume, time, and pressure—affect the extraction process, ultimately influencing flavor, tactile, and quality.
Best Practices: Learn the optimal techniques for “how” and “when” to dial in your espresso to achieve the perfect balance of flavors.
Adjusting Variables: Gain hands-on experience adjusting and documenting brewing variables and see firsthand how these changes impact the final cup.
Coffee Analysis: Analyze roast profile, origin, bean density, and processing methods to understand their effects on the extraction process.
Tasting Experience: Develop your palate while describing and comparing flavors, extraction, and balance.
By the end of this course, participants will not only have a greater appreciation for the complexities of specific coffees but will also leave with increased confidence and efficiency in dialing in espresso.
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Room Number: 362DEF
Category: Espresso
Booking: To book your place in this Workshop, head to the Specialty Coffee Expo Registration Portal and add a session to your order. Already registered? Simply enter your email address and badge code to access your booking and add other paid events to your badge.
Instructor
Kristen Hjelm (she/her)
Senior Director, Business Development - BUNN
Kristen Hjelm is the Senior Director of Business Development for BUNN. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family and two young kids. Kristen received a Master in Business Administration degree from Arizona State University. Kristen has been involved with the coffee industry for over 20 years as a barista, corporate trainer, sales and business development consultant. As a sensory and technical judge, she has judged regional and national Barista Competitions for over 12 years. Kristen has volunteered, presented, and created content for various industry organizations, including SCA Expo, World of Coffee, Coffee Technicians Guild, Coffee Fest, and more. Kristen is passionate about the specialty coffee industry and provides a welcoming atmosphere in which to learn, share, and grow with one another.
Equitable Pricing Models: Building your Own Pricing Impact Assessment to Support Smallholder Livelihoods
Workshop Description: Pricing decisions across the supply chain have a direct measurable impact on the livelihoods, resilience, and prosperity of coffee producing communities. This workshop gives roasters and other coffee enterprises the tools and insights to assess the impact of their pricing strategies on smallholder producers welfare. Participants will explore impactful pricing models—such as long-term contracts, living income benchmarks, community investment and traceable price guarantees, among others—that go beyond c-market rates and business as usual models, to provide meaningful support and incentives for coffee producers.
Designed for roasters of all sizes, this workshop helps participants assess and adapt pricing practices aligned with business goals and producer prosperity. Through practical exercises and open-source tools, attendees will gain a solid understanding of the data needed to evaluate price impact, develop strategies to work with supply chain partners to assess impact, and craft communication tools that raise awareness with employees and end consumers. By the end of the session, roasters will have the skills to assess and monitor the impact of their pricing strategies, using this insight as a pivotal tool to build stronger, more resilient supply chain
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Room Number: 370AB
Category: Business
Booking: To book your place in this Workshop, head to the Specialty Coffee Expo Registration Portal and add a session to your order. Already registered? Simply enter your email address and badge code to access your booking and add other paid events to your badge.
Instructor
Pedro Manga
From Surviving to Thriving – How to Run a Profitable Coffee Shop
Workshop Description: Back by popular demand! Join this workshop designed exclusively for coffee shop owners or managers seeking to elevate their business game. Focus on honing your business acumen while gaining invaluable insights into financial strategies, operational efficiencies, and essential practices to maximize profitability. From cost analysis to menu engineering, you’ll walk away equipped with the tools to optimize your shop's financial health.
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Room Number: 371AB
Category: Business
Booking: To book your place in this Workshop, head to the Specialty Coffee Expo Registration Portal and add a session to your order. Already registered? Simply enter your email address and badge code to access your booking and add other paid events to your badge.
Instructor
Laila Ghambari
Quality, Food Safety and Employee Safety - The Trinity
Workshop Description: As a coffee roasters, we all should agree that quality management, food safety and employee safety are all important. In fact, the last two are regulated and one must comply. Quality management one could argue that without it, you will not survive.
In this workshop you will learn the scientific disciplines each requires, as well as how they overlap and even sometimes conflict.
We will work thru how to develop all three that feed into one another which helps create robust programs for each.
We will explore:
- The things you must do (regulatory - FDA and OSHA)
- The things you should do for quality control
- Risk assessment process for each
- Development of SOP's for each
- Documentation of the whole process
- Internal Audits, Corrective Actions and Root Cause Analysis
The end goal - is to create systems and programs for each that take your "tribal" knowledge and make it institutional. From there, you will understand that humans are humans, we make mistakes, but how do we prevent making the same ones over and over.
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Room Number: 372AB
Category: Business
Booking: To book your place in this Workshop, head to the Specialty Coffee Expo Registration Portal and add a session to your order. Already registered? Simply enter your email address and badge code to access your booking and add other paid events to your badge.
Instructor
Mike Ebert (he/him)
Senior Consultant, Firedancer Coffee Consultants
MIKE EBERT is founder of Firedancer Coffee Consultants, dedicated to helping clients create a personalized strategy to ensure long-‐term success. He works primarily with roasters, producers and retailers, drawing from his extensive experience in all facets of the specialty coffee supply chain to guide clients in reaching their potential. Ebert is an Authorized SCA Trainer (AST) for the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA); a certified Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) and lead trainer for food safety; and co-‐chairs curriculum for the SCA Educational Advisory Council, which develops new educational experiences for the specialty coffee community.
Infused at Origin: Understanding and Experiencing Infused Coffees
Workshop Description: Join us for an in-depth exploration of the growing trend of infused green coffee—a processing technique that is making waves in the coffee landscape. In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn about this trending category of coffee, including how it's made at origin, what sets it apart from other coffee processing methods, and its potential advantages and drawbacks.
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Room Number: 360DEF
Category: Brewing/Sensory
Booking: To book your place in this Workshop, head to the Specialty Coffee Expo Registration Portal and add a session to your order. Already registered? Simply enter your email address and badge code to access your booking and add other paid events to your badge.
Taste, Describe, Create: Applying The CVA Descriptive Form To Coffee Blend Creation
Workshop Description: The Taste, Describe, Create Workshop introduces the Coffee Value Assessment Descriptive Form to coffee professionals new to the CVA. The workshop advances the knowledge and understanding of the Descriptive Form by applying it to the coffee blend creation process. Working collaboratively in small groups, we will recreate a reference coffee blend.
After completing this workshop, attendees will gain valuable first-hand insight into the multiple uses of the CVA Descriptive Form. The practical application of the form in a guided workshop setting will build the confidence necessary to include the CVA as part of their product development and quality control processes.
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Room Number: 361DEF
Category: Cupping
Booking: To book your place in this Workshop, head to the Specialty Coffee Expo Registration Portal and add a session to your order. Already registered? Simply enter your email address and badge code to access your booking and add other paid events to your badge.
Instructor
Todd Arnette (he/him)
The Alchemy of the Pour: Mastering Latte Art Techniques
Workshop Description: Latte art transcends mere aesthetics; it represents the culmination of skill, technique, and the quality of coffee ingredients. This hands-on, bilingual workshop will immerse participants in the captivating world of latte art, highlighting how minor adjustments in milk texturization and pouring technique can lead to significant differences in visual and flavor appeal.
Throughout the session, we will explore the science of milk composition, the importance of espresso as a foundation, and the artistry behind each pour. Participants will engage in practical exercises to master silky microfoam and create stunning designs, from classic hearts to intricate rosettas and tulips.
Join us for an immersive experience that fuses technique with artistry, and take your coffee crafting skills to new heights!
El latte art trasciende lo puramente estético; representa la culminación de habilidades, técnica y la calidad de los ingredientes del café. Este taller práctico y bilingüe permitirá a los participantes profundizar en el arte del latte art, mostrando cómo pequeños ajustes en la texturización de la leche y en la técnica de vertido pueden generar diferencias significativas tanto en la presentación visual como en el perfil de sabor.
A lo largo de la sesión, exploraremos la ciencia detrás de la composición de la leche, la importancia del espresso como base fundamental, y el arte detrás de cada vertido. Los participantes realizarán ejercicios prácticos para perfeccionar la creación de microespuma sedosa y desarrollar diseños sorprendentes, que van desde corazones clásicos hasta rosetas y tulipanes intrincados.
Te invitamos a participar en una experiencia que combina técnica y creatividad, elevando tus habilidades en la elaboración de café a un nivel superior.
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Room Number: 362DEF
Category: Espresso
Booking: To book your place in this Workshop, head to the Specialty Coffee Expo Registration Portal and add a session to your order. Already registered? Simply enter your email address and badge code to access your booking and add other paid events to your badge.
Instructor
Nicole Rosaly Martínez (she/her)
Authorized SCA Trainer (AST)
Nicole Rosaly is a dedicated coffee educator and Authorized SCA Trainer (AST) in Barista Skills, with certifications in Sensory Skills, Brewing, and Green Coffee. With over 18 years of experience in the coffee industry, Nicole has had the privilege to teach through workshops and certifications in both English and Spanish, always striving to make learning accessible and meaningful for everyone. Currently serving as Coffee Director at La Academia de Baristas de Puerto Rico, a barista professor at Universidad Ana G. Méndez in Puerto Rico, one of the creators of Project Origin for Puerto Rico, and on a new coffee journey with Not Your Average Joe, Nicole is deeply committed on supporting the growth of the coffee community. She believes in the value of collaboration and the importance of creating training programs that accommodate all types of abilities, helping individuals at every level unlock their potential and continue growing. With a focus on nurturing talent and fostering genuine connections, Nicole is grateful for the chance to share her love & passion for coffee through this workshop and contribute to the success of others.
Regenerative Thinking: A Design Thinking Toolkit for Specialty Coffee
Workshop Description: The practice of sustainability requires the dynamic careful balance of social, economic, and environmental priorities. Achieving this balance is by nature complex, as the connections are usually not clearly defined or emerge in scales (time or space) not easily identifiable by conventional analytical approaches. This challenge calls for a new (collective) mindset and leadership capacity, being more conscious, purposeful, and strategic to create this sustainable future (intentionally), generating greater possibilities for all actors in the coffee value chain.
Design thinking is a human-centered (user-centered) approach to problem-solving that amalgamates stakeholders’ need through empathy and an adaptive process rooted in practice and action-learning. The use of prototypes for making tangible the product or services help the designer re-think solutions to bring new perspectives and ideas, transforming the way people, organizations, and businesses solve these problems and create shared-value solutions.
This workshop will introduce prototyping techniques from design thinking for solving a set of real sustainability challenges in the specialty coffee sector that will allow the generation of a creative solution (prototype) that intersect desirability, viability, and feasibility. The blend of theoretical elements with action-learning offers a new way to understand problem solving and social innovation to make coffee better, for all.
Our goal is to provide actionable knowledge that support sustainability professionals, coffee companies and producer organizations in the specialty coffee industry to incorporate skills and mindsets that facilitate the generation of transformative solutions that are regenerative and distributive by design, and that consider sustainability an ongoing practice for learning how to make the right thing the right way, a commitment for create a coffee sector of shared opportunity, shared responsibility, and shared prosperity.
The workshop is inspired by the Theory U philosophy, Doughnut Design for Business tool, and the Human-Centered approach to innovation that will be adapted to the specialty coffee context to create an impactful and dynamic activity for all the participants.
Date: Friday, April 25, 2025
Time: 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Room Number: 370AB
Category: Brewing/Sensory
Booking: To book your place in this Workshop, head to the Specialty Coffee Expo Registration Portal and add a session to your order. Already registered? Simply enter your email address and badge code to access your booking and add other paid events to your badge.
Instructor
Andrés M. Montenegro J. (he/him)
Sustainability Director, Specialty Coffee Association